Plasmon-controlled narrower and blue-shifted fluorescence emission in (Au@SiO2)SiC nanohybrids

Fluorescent imaging is a key tool in biology. On one hand, organic dyes are subjected to bleaching; while, on the other hand II-VI semiconductor quantum dots are photostable, but may exhibit some toxicity. Silicon carbide nanoparticles (SiC NPs) are a good alternative as SiC is chemically inert and considered as biocompatible material. However, their fluorescence quantum yield is weak. Plasmon-controlled fluorescence appears as a mean to enhance SiC NPs fluorescence. To this aim, new fluorescent nanohybrids (NHs) involving a gold colloid surrounded by a silica shell and overcoated with SiC NPs have been engineered. Au@SiO2 particles were synthesized via a sol-gel method to obtain a controlled thickness of silica around gold colloid. Then, SiC NPs were immobilized onto silica by covalent bonding. TEM was used to study the structural properties of NHs. The influence of several parameters on NHs' fluorescence properties was investigated. It reveals that excitation wavelength must be chosen as close as possible to the gold plasmon band to avoid quenching of emission due to energy transfer between gold absorption and SiC emission. Moreover, the silica thickness is a key parameter to obtain high enhancement; for gold colloids of 20 nm in diameter overcoated by a 25 nm shell, an enhancement factor as high as 12.5 was obtained with a narrower and blue-shifted emission band. This blue-shift can be attributed to the surface chemistry modification of SiC NPs when they are covalently bonded to silica.